Nauvoo Pictures! Part one...

The AWESOME John Taylor District!

I'm so glad our covered wagon was a little more modern than this one! Although I came close to stopping our "wagon" on several occasions for some boys to have the REAL pioneer trek experience on the way to Nauvoo, our trip was quite pleasurable compared to walking all the way!

Our family picture outside the Nauvoo Temple. Unfortunately, getting the family into costumes in the morning for a picture without the sun in our faces was NOT an option.

Our little pioneer children! LOVE the costumes!!!

The princess pioneer in her pioneer wagon! The greatest $99 we spent for the trip was this garden cart from Lowe's! HOORAY for a very sturdy wagon this year!

A little Sunday evening peace with the most beautiful Nauvoo sunset... this was our best attempt at using the timer on the camera! Reese was so distracted by the fact that I ran to jump into the picture!

Report on Nauvoo... FINALLY!!!!

I just had to share a little bit of the pre-trip chaos!!! Packing for seven people is certainly a MAJOR feat!!! My brain hurt after this one!
O.K. , I know that I need some help! I really shouldn't be so anal, but I have learned that if you leave the boys to pack their own clothes, nothing will match and MUCH will be forgotten!
It was a happy day when I got to this point and had the suitcases ready top shut!

The modern day pioneer wagon... completely stuffed to the brim with everything under the sun for an amazing trip! Bikes..a REAL wagon, you name it! We decided this year that it would be a good idea to bring along the kids bikes so that they could burn off a little of the excess energy that they all seem to have. What is amazing is the fact that we really found they still had excess energy...after all the long days of rehearsals you would think that they would be totally burnout, but NO, not our kids! If only I could borrow a little from them every day! More to come later on the Nauvoo trip! Migraine headaches are not good to deal with while you blog. I think we'll stop until tomorrow!

Update on Brennan

Brennan is turning more and more colorful as the days go on... and now has the diagnosis of a CONCUSSION to go with it! After an eventful trip to the pediatrician yesterday to check his eye... where he passed out during the exam for motor skills... he was refered to a specialist in Charlotte today. He has a mild concussion and will have to lay low for the next week while his brain settles down! We are soooo glad that he is o.k.!!! We found out a little more about the story and things were a little more intentional than accidental with the ball hitting the back of Brennan's head. Boys will be boys, but sometimes a little... or a LOT... TOO RUFF!!! We are SOOOO glad that it was not more serious than it was!

The Princess Copies Her Brother...

I just couldn't resist snapping this picture the other morning when Reese woke up. She was determined to wear Brock's PJ's to bed the night before and promptly found his old shoes to put on in the morning too. I just had to laugh as she walked around with crazy bed head, her little tomboy outfit and then the sweetest little mothering talk to her Baby. She kept on telling her baby that she needed to go and change her BUM! "Let's go change your bum baby... it's o.k."

Church Ball Takes a Turn!

This picture was taken about two hours after the injury.... it should be quite pretty by morning! Looks like we are headed to the Dr. in the morning for a possible round of stitches in the face. Par for the course this week I guess. Brennan was playing basketball at the church tonight and was hit in the back of the head which forced his face into the metal edge of the room divider handle. Under that lovely bandage is a pretty ugly deep gash. Hopefully it will be o.k. if we wait until morning since the ER at this time of the night is hours of waiting. We hope we have enough time to wait to get into the Dr the morning so that he doesn't have a HUGE scar on this face! Poor kid... and to top it all off his other ear is where the swimmers ear is... he hopes that he can fall asleep tonight!

Oh JOY - Off to the Clinic we Go!

Today, I am VERY thankful for the invention of CVS Minute Clinic!!! It had to be a MOM that decided an inexpensive walk-in clinic was needed in every neighborhood! So now... with four out of five kids feeling under the weather we have... one with swimmers ear (Brennan), two with ear infections (Tate and Reese), and one kid with the stomach bug (Poor Brock)!!! YUCK! What a joyful day it is... oh an did I mention that Dad is out of the office all day today meeting with clients in Hendersonville. Trying to get all the kids to the Dr. has been a chore! I'll be glad when bedtime comes!

Happy Birthday Reese!!!

Make a Smilebox photobook

School's Out for the SUMMER!!!

The Teachers That We Love!

Brennan and Mr. Vincent... What a great teacher he was with such a strong emphasis in reading! He was a perfect fit for Brennan this year... Brennan also had two other teachers since they change classes but this was his homeroom teacher... Mrs. Glenham for AIG Math and Ms. Hardaway for Science and Social Studies. What a great bunch!

Mrs. Rinebold and Brock... we were SOO lucky to be blessed with her as a teacher again this year and now for Brock. You have never seen a better Kindergarten teacher ever... she does the most amazing things with her class and NEVER raises her voice. The respect she has with her students is like no other!!!

Ms. Schulte and Tate.. the Big Second Grade. We just loved Ms. Schulte too... she was so great to work with Tate and was such a great influence on him. She really encouraged him and helped him to really make great strides this year. We found out today that she is moving on to third grade next year and there is a chance for Tate to request to move up with her. That would be GREAT!!!

Tanner is a little too cool for pictures with his teachers at the middle school... and frankly some of them may not be smiling in their pictures! Ha ha ha!!! Tanner did great this year despite his dislike of the lengthy class time ( 90 minutes each!!!) and boredom. It seems that he found other ways to entertain himself while he was bored... most of the time helping others in the class to have a fun time... which can come at a price! hee hee!!! A special thanks goes out to Ms. Darbe, Mr. Stone, Mr. Earwood and Mrs. Dantism for teaching Tanner this year... even when he seemed unteachable!!!

Off ot the big MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!

Brennan looks so serious here... hmmm...contemplating life in the middle school I suppose. He was waiting in line for the graduation ceremony to begin and Brock and I passed him in the hallway. He begged to untuck his golf shirt... Mom, please PLEASE can I untuck my shirt??? It was quite funny to see all the girls dressed in their fanciest dresses and the boys were lucky to be convinced to wear golf shirts and nice shorts. Their were only a handful of boys that had shirts and ties on in the class of 150! Brennan was SOOO glad that I did not make him wear his nice pants, etc.

The fake diploma!!! Each kid was given a mock diploma when they shook hands with the principal and then in the classroom was given a nice framed copy along with a picture of them and their teacher. Speaking of the principal - oh my... the rules this man spouted off at the beginning of the ceremony were ridiculous!!!! No clapping... only stand in THIS spot if you want a picture of your child... no cheering for your child. Well we had a little secret weapon with us who stole the show in front of about 500 people. Reese would not STOP singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY at the top of her lungs... over and over and over again. Then when Brennan graduated.. she SHOUTED..."GOOD JOB BRENNAN!!!" Way to go Reese!!!!

Brennan and a few of his best friends from his class. What a great group of kids he was blessed to be with all year.

Brennan and Bailey - Best of Friends!!! Thank goodness Bailey lives in our neighborhood and they were able to have several years at the Elementary in the same class. Life was always good when you could look on the class list and see your best friends name on their with you!

Brennan, Mom and Dad... so proud of our little graduate! On to the BIG middle school next years with Tanner. What a blessing that will be to have them in the same school. They share a room and having Brennan leave for school an hour and a half earlier than Tanner made life a little interesting. Same schedules will be NICE!!!

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth!!!

Hooray for Brock loosing another tooth... and this one he even let his Father pull out...well

sorta! This poor little tooth had been dangling for days, Brock came home from school in some real distress on Monday. He was very uncomfortable but refused to pull it out himself. So he went out to sell at his lemonade stand with Tate and bit on a Otter Pop... and it made it bleed... real good... but still wouldn't fall out. So Mark and I decided to take matters into our own hands and came up with a plan. I would catch Brock and start tickling him and wrestle him down to the ground, while Mark swooped in and pulled the tooth while Brock was distracted with the Mom fight. And the results were.. fabulous! He didn't feel a thing and was SOOO happy to have it out in time for dinner! Now if only we could do the same thing with the tooth Tate has had hanging literally by a thread for MONTHS now! He's very protective of it... would let you see it and even clamps his lips in a dead sleep during the night if you even touch his lip. Come on Tooth Fairy... Help us out one night!!!! PLEASE!

Tate's Baptism - It's Great to Be Eight!

There are some days in life that just shine a little brighter than the rest.... yesterday was one of them! Tate turned eight yesterday and was able to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He has waited a long time and prepared himself by making good choices and following the Saviors example. He was so excited to be baptized and had this beautiful smile plaster on his face all day long! How can you not smile when you see a child who is truly this excited about doing what is right.

What a handsome little man! Eight years have seriously just flashed before my eyes... how can it be that he is even this old already?

The whole family before the baptism... Brock's shirt is permanently un-tucked ... no matter what I do! Tanner and Brennan are quickly gaining on me too.. It won't be long at all before I look at them eye to eye!

This is one of my favorites... my two handsome men dress in white. There is nothing more precious than to see your husband dressed in white performing the baptism for your child. I am the luckiest girl on earth to be married to such a FINE man and to have four of the finest young men and one heavenly little daughter in my home each and every day!

It may be a LONG time before Tate has 100 people sing Happy Birthday to him again!!! What a bonus to have his baptism be on his actual birthday. We had so many people from the ward come to support Tate and the rest of our family yesterday. I truly feel very blessed!